While the largest faith in Canada remains Christianity, nearly one-quarter of Canada’s population has no religious affiliation, according to the 2011 National Household Survey released Wednesday.

That’s roughly 7.8 million people who don’t identify with a religion, up from 16.5 per cent of the population a decade earlier.

“We’re seeing an increase,” said Jane Badets, a spokeswoman for Statistics Canada. “It varies across the country.”

About 4 in 10 people in B.C. have no religious affiliation, compared to 2 in 10 in Toronto, she said.

And immigration has contributed to the population having no religious affiliation – although she couldn’t say why.

The non-religious population is also younger than the general population, the survey said, with the median age in 2011 of about 33 years old.

The largest faith in Canada is still Christianity, at just over 22 million people or two-thirds of the population, the survey said.

Roman Catholics were the largest Christian religious group, with 12.8 million people or almost 39 per cent of the population. It was followed by the United Church at just over 2 million people, then Anglicans.

Another 4.5 per cent said they were simply “Christian,” with Baptists forming the fifth largest denomination among the Christian faith at 1.9 per cent.

But consistent with changing immigration patterns, there were growing proportions of the population who reported religious affiliations other than Christian, the survey said.